SABR 301 - Rocco Baldelli, sabermetrician (June 16, 2003)
"You don't go out there trying to get walks," Baldelli said. "Those are things that are just byproducts of taking close pitches and just being patient at the plate. When I see a good pitch to hit, for the most part I'm going to be swinging at it. Maybe that will hurt my walk total but that's not really something I'm worried about too much." "They don't preach `get walks,'" Baldelli said. "They preach, `Get a good pitch to hit.' If you don't get a good pitch to hit, hopefully that means you're going to get a walk. But they don't come out and say you need to get walks. "They might say, `That pitch you swung at, maybe you should have waited a little longer or taken it.' They don't even do that much. For the most part they don't harp on it."
Perfectly said. The only question remaining is: how many batters are successful at this, and how many can improve their pitch selection?
(Thanks to Ryan W for pointing me here.)
--posted by TangoTiger at 05:09 PM EDT
Posted 5:10 p.m.,
June 16, 2003
(#1) -
tangotiger
And try to answer that question WITHOUT referencing a player's K or BB numbers.
Posted 9:27 a.m.,
June 17, 2003
(#2) -
miserlou
Obvious choice is Soriano, who swings at every slider in the dirt. I've noticed Andruw Jones gets like that a lot too when he starts slumping midseason.